Law Commons^™

Standards Of Review In Texas, W. Wendell Hall, Ryan G. Anderson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Billy Joel: The Minstrel Testifies Or How The Rules Of Evidence Handcuff The Piano Man, Hon. Richard A. Dollinger

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Notice And The Law's "Scientific" Search For Truth, Christopher Onstott

Akron Law Review

Part I of this Article begins by introducing the concept of judicial notice followed by a short background defining the scope of scientific and technical principles. Part II addresses the problems created by the current judicial notice standard. The standard’s text is problematic, and courts’ diverse interpretations of the standard have also created problems. Part III analyzes whether scientific and technical principles merit a different judicial notice standard specifically for them. This Part concludes that the inherent inconsistency of science and technical knowledge with the current standard and the judicial shortcomings in scientific/technical competence justify different legal treatment. Finally, Part …

Trial By Google: Judicial Notice In The Information Age, Andrew Ferguson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This Article presents a theory of judicial notice for the information age. It argues that the ease of accessing factual data on the Internet allows judges and litigants to expand the use of judicial notice in ways that raise significant concerns about admissibility, reliability, and fair process. State and federal courts are already applying the surprisingly pliant judicial notice rules to bring websites ranging from Google Maps to Wikipedia into the courtroom, and these decisions will only increase in frequency in coming years. This rapidly emerging judicial phenomenon is notable for its ad hoc and conclusory nature – attributes that …

Challenging Judicial Notice Of Facts On The Internet Under Federal Rule Of Evidence 201, Coleen M. Barger

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Criminal Practice Developments In Maryland Evidence Law And Confrontation Clause Jurisprudence, Lynn Mclain

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper was prepared as a handout for a presentation given on July 9th., 2010 to staff at the Harford County Public Defender’s Office, Bel Air, MD. The specific sections of the paper are: Discovery of Witnesses’ Identities: Protective Orders; Jury Selection; Communications from Jurors; Preservation of the Record: Rules 4-323, 5-103, and 5-702; Judicial Notice: Rule 5-201; Balancing Risk of Unfair Prejudice and Confusion against Probative Value: Rule 5-403; Character Evidence; Fifth Amendment Privilege: Miranda; Competency of Witnesses: Rule 5-601; Impeachment by Prior Convictions: Rule 5-609; Questioning by Court: Rule 5-614; Expert Testimony: Rules 5-702 – 5-706; Hearsay; The …

Evidence: 1997-1998 Survey Of New York Law, Faust Rossi

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Rule 803(18): Learned Treatises

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Notice: An Essay Concerning Human Misunderstanding, E. F. Roberts

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Articles limning the law pertaining to judicial notice are legion, and the footnotes which have been cite checked by generations of law review editors must number in the thousands. These articles assume that reason, properly employed, produces correct answers. They assume that disagreements can be resolved by reason, because it is self-evident that any problem, once identified, can be solved. Reflected here are the presuppositions of lawyers brought up in the Western legal tradition.

What if one were to doubt that reason necessarily governed the behavior of lawyers? What if one doubted as well that all problems were susceptible to …

Judicial Notice: An Exercise In Exorcism, E. F. Roberts

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Preliminary Notes Toward A Study Of Judicial Notice, E. F. Roberts

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The author describes the common law as a "machine," with judges and lawyers as its working parts. He explains that its successful operation requires a kind of "intellectual adrenalin" in order to keep it responsive to its changing environment. This is the function of judicial notice. The author next examines the different views of judicial notice and points out that each is a reflection of the era in which it was created. He concludes that judicial notice is not a distinct doctrine like the hearsay rule, but rather is simply the art of thinking as practiced within the legal system.

Judicial Notice Of Scientific Facts, Jon C. Kleri

Cleveland State Law Review

The practical purpose of judicial notice is to dispense with the necessity of taking proof to establish a well known or accepted fact or proposition. However, courts are not bound to take judicial notice of matters of fact. Their acceptance or rejection is dependent upon the nature and scope of the subject matter as it relates to the issues in any given case in conjunction with the overall justice applicable to the matter. A court will not take judicial notice of a fact where there is doubt or uncertainty regarding its acceptance or notoriety.

Evidence -- 1963 Tennessee Survey, Lyman R. Patterson

Vanderbilt Law Review

The doctrine of judicial notice is that an indisputable proposition of fact or a proposition of law of the jurisdiction is not subject to proof. The doctrine thus serves to relieve the litigant of the burden of proving certain facts and law, and is one of immense theoretical implication for the trial lawyer. A fact which is judicially noticed has much greater probative value than a fact which is proved, no matter how strong the proof. Judicial notice thus offers the trial lawyer an extremely effective, but apparently largely unused, device in litigation. None of the cases involving judicial notice …

Procedure And Evidence -- 1962 Tennessee Survey, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Construction of Pleading--Where the plaintiffs bill of complaint for specific performance of a contract for the purchase of a specified parcel of realty discloses on its face that the agreement was oral, the defendant may raise the defense of the statute of frauds by demurrer.'

Burden of Proof and Presumptions--The current decisions do little to clear up the confusion caused by the use of the term presumption, though it is usually not too difficult to determine the effect intended to be given it in a particular case.

Judicial Notice--The cases in which the Tennessee courts have applied the doctrine of …

Judicial Notice -- Excerpts Relating To The Morgan-Wignore Controversy, John T. Mcnaughton

Vanderbilt Law Review

Author's Note: These two excerpts are from the author's preliminary draft of his proposed revision of the judicial notice chapter of Wigmore on Evidence. The excerpts are submitted for publication in this Edmund M. Morgan issue of the Vanderbilt Law Review for two reasons: First, because of the important role played by Professor Morgan in the recent development and articulation of the law of judicial notice and, second, because Professor Morgan and Dean Wigmore stand at opposite poles in the argument over judicial notice. At least they do with respect to one significant particular. They do not differ with respect …

Judicial Note And Indisputables, Ralph Slovenko

Cleveland State Law Review

Under the adversary system of trying cases, the litigant and not the trier is responsible for gathering and presenting the evidence. However, under the doctrine of judicial notice, the tribunal accepts the existence of certain evidence without the necessity of a party offering formal proof.

Procedure And Evidence -- 1954 Tennessee Survey, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Generally: The strict rules of pleading are not applicable in a will contest,' which is a proceeding sui generis and regulated by statute. Demurrer. A demurrer to a cross-bill in chancery on the ground that it "states no cause of action upon which relief can be granted" is a nullity, and should be stricken on motion.

Plea in Abatement: Where the chancellor upon hearing a plea inabatement of another action pending for the same cause, found that the cause was substantially the same, and granted plaintiff permission to file the bill in the later suit as an amended or supplemental …

Judicial Notice, Charles T. Mccormick

Vanderbilt Law Review

The traditional Anglo-American system of proof demands rigorous guaranties of accuracy, with its requirement of witnesses having first-hand knowledge, its mistrust of hearsay, however reliable, except for narrow exceptions, and its insistence upon original documents and their authentication by witnesses. These requirements have their roots in the contentious or adversary system, where the party and not the judge is responsible for gathering and presenting facts, and in the method of jury trial. But this strict though scientific insistence upon proving everything at first hand is, like jury-trial itself, enormously costly in time, energy and money. The principal effect of the …